Caleb grunted. It was his version of agreement. Logan had learned Caleb mostly communicated through a series of grunts and rude hand gestures. He was the perfect doc for Bliss. “I didn’t have to run. I keep it in my exam room ever since my blood pressure monitor sent Mel into an alien abduction flashback. That old man is strong, let me tell you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m fast,” Max explained. “The minute Doc went for the gun, I hightailed it right out of there and started back up the mountain. Unfortunately, Doc holds a mean grudge and he followed me, and apparently we scared the shit out of some tourists. But only some of them. The rest were busy taking pictures. I think there might be a video on YouTube. Do you think I can use that to sue Doc here, Gemma? I can give you a retainer when I get my pants back.”
There was another grunt out of Caleb, but Logan thought this one was Doc’s “fuck you” grunt. “You are never getting those pants back. I told Naomi to toss them in with the medical waste.”
Max’s eyes went wide. “Damn, man. Those are my favorite Levi’s. They don’t make them anymore.”
Caleb just shot him the bird.
Gemma shook her head. “I think I’m going to pass on suing Caleb. He’s the only doc around here, and one day I’m going to want to have babies. Besides, Jesse told me he was very gentle when it came to his balls.”
“See, I’m damn good with balls,” Caleb shouted. “And I’m very gentle with the rectal exam, too. I’m a motherfucking artist.”
Max turned to Logan. “Doc wants to play with my rectum. Can you get me moved to solitary?”
“We don’t have a solitary, man. You’re just going to have to stay to one side.” Yep. Now he was remembering the job. He spent half his work day simply containing the chaos. “I’ll call Rachel and Holly.”
“Don’t! Call Rye. Please call Rye,” Max pleaded.
“Naomi’s already on her way. Holly and Alexei are in class.” Caleb sighed and lay down on the cot like it was just another part of his day.
Alexei. Fuck. He hadn’t heard the name in a long time and that was a good thing. He’d avoided saying it, tried not to think it, but he could hardly expect to not hear about the motherfucker here. And apparently he’d gone to college. Logan wanted to go to college. He’d had the applications in his fucking desk the same day Alexei had sentenced him to hell.
“Logan, good to have you back.” Nathan Wright stood in the doorway to his office, his even voice pulling Logan back to the here and now. “Max, Caleb, we’ll get you processed out real soon. Naomi’s five minutes away. And Rachel is right here.”
“Max Harper, this is the last straw!” A five-foot-two-inch ball of pure fury blew through the double doors, her strawberry blonde hair flying behind her.
“Logan, come on into my office. This is going to get ugly.” Nate gestured him back. “Gemma, I need a triple, please, and could you get the paperwork done to process them out?”
Gemma gave the boss a jaunty little salute. “Will do.”
“I ask you to do one thing!” Rachel was yelling. “One damn thing. Get a physical so we can get life insurance so we can protect our babies. Babies. We have another baby on the way, and you want that baby to be left with nothing if you die.”
Max’s blue eyes went wide. “No, baby, no. I just want to protect our child from unneeded rectal exams.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “Are you kidding me? We’re here because you’re afraid of having a single finger shoved up your ass so we can make sure you don’t have cancer?”
“Baby, it’s unnatural.”
“Max Harper, you are never getting anal sex again. Not for the rest of your life. And the vaginal sex is in question, too.”
Max got to his knees, his hands on the bars. “Baby, no, I can’t live on oral alone.”
Rachel turned. “Leave him in there. I’ve got pregnancy hormones to deal with. I can’t deal with him, too.”
“Rachel, baby, I love you!”
Rachel stopped briefly to look up at Logan. “Logan, welcome home. It’s good to know you got your head out of your ass long enough to come back to where you belong. Your mommas have been very lonely. I expect to see you out at the house for dinner on Sunday.”
“I’ll have to check my schedule, ma’am.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “Really?”
He knew damn well why she was surprised. He would never have thought to reply to her with anything but a solid “yes” before because Rachel was a ballbuster. She could freeze a man at fifty paces, but he wasn’t the same kid who had left. “Really. I have a lot of obligations while I’m here. If I can, I would love to come out to the house, but I have to check with my roommates.”
God only knew what Seth had planned for them. If he really had balls, he wouldn’t care. But the thought that he would get thrown into something with Georgia…damn, he couldn’t pass that up. He knew it was wrong. He knew it made him a fucking masochist, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d tried to stay away from her, knew he couldn’t be with her long term, but he wanted to worship her from up close for a little while, and he wasn’t going to let Rachel Harper’s iron willpower get in his way.
Rachel smiled a little and gave him a wink. “Good for you, Logan. I’ll give you a call. What’s that boy’s name, Seth, I think? He’s welcome, too, and the pretty little blonde. Nothing gets past Callie, hon.”
“Rach?” Max sounded so sad.
Rachel growled. “I’ll be at Stella’s. I need some pancakes.”
As Rachel walked out, a gorgeous, curvy woman with coffee-colored skin and a deep frown on her face walked in.
“I don’t know why I work for you.”
Caleb smiled. “Hey, Na. You rock. Ten percent pay increase.”
A brilliant smile crossed her face. “I just remembered. Where’s Gemma? I have to get you out of here. You have a ten o’clock sonogram with Jennifer Talbot.”
“She’s in the back,” Nate said, pointing toward the break room. “Logan? Park your stuff at the desk and get in here.” He turned away, disappearing into his office. “We have weird shit going on in the county. Well, weirder shit than normal.”
Max and Caleb started yelling at each other again, and the woman who seemed to be named Naomi walked back to find Gemma, and Logan was left in the one place he’d been pretty certain he wouldn’t visit again.
He drifted over to the desks. There were three. The big one in the middle of the room had always been used by Nate’s assistant. He glanced down and could tell that Gemma was different. Hope had kept her desk pin neat, with no personal touches at all, but Gemma had a bunch of pictures of people all over her desk in pretty frames. He recognized the men she’d been with outside of Stella’s, her arms around them. There was a picture of her with Hope and a pretty, really pregnant woman he thought might be James’s partner’s wife.
He moved past her desk and was caught by the big framed picture on Cam’s desk. In the center of the frame was a tiny baby with a tuft of black hair. That baby was in Laura’s arms, and she was shining in the picture, her blonde hair a virtual halo around her head. Rafe and Cam were beaming down at the woman and child. Hell. Cam had a baby. Cam had been his friend, and he didn’t know what the baby’s name was.
“She’s pretty, huh?” Gemma was behind him, a mug in her hand. “Sierra Rose. Cam brought her up here yesterday and left that here. He was so happy. I’ll admit, it makes me think even I might be able to have little scary pooping rug rats. Here’s some coffee. I’ve got to go and deal with a shit ton of paperwork. I hope Max never gets sex again.”
He took the mug, and the amazing smell hit him. Damn, that wasn’t Hope’s coffee. That was brown gold. He took a long draw as he sat down at his old desk. Gemma had been right on two fronts. One—her coffee was worth more than money. It was beautiful and might actually change his life. Two—his desk was exactly how he’d left it, right down to the pencils he’d left by his phone.